Cold shooting in the first half hurt State Fair Community College in a 77-63 loss to MSU-West Plains on Wednesday at the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center.

The Roadrunners (18-7, 4-2 Region 16) shot 8 of 29 from the field in the first half, spotting the Grizzlies a 39-25 halftime lead.

“I thought they did a good job of guarding us and I thought our guys settled for a lot of long jumpers instead of attacking the rim,” said State Fair coach Kevin Thomas.

After a Joe Thomasson basket cut the Grizzlies’ lead to 10-7, the Roadrunners missed their next seven shots from the field. Kevin Punter Jr. ended that drought with a layup, but State Fair missed five of its next six shots. The Roadrunners closed the half by missing their last six shots from the field.

“We took a lot of quick shots,” Thomas said. “We didn’t work the offense to get guys driving or get multiple drives. We just had one guy put up a shot. You can’t beat good teams like that. You’re going to have to get multiple drives in order to win.”

MSU-West Plains (4-2 Region 16) took advantage of the cold spell by going on runs of 15-5, 7-0 and 7-0.

“We didn’t pay attention to the scouting report,” Thomas said. “I thought we did a poor job of guarding our ball screens. I thought at their place we did a much better job. They ran the same stuff (Wednesday) and we didn’t handle it very well.”

State Fair opened the second half with a run to cut the lead to four. The Roadrunners scored the first 11 points of the half, capped off by Kenny Chery getting a steal and a 3-point play, then stealing the inbounds pass and feeding Thomasson for a layup.

A Thomasson 3-pointer moments later cut the Grizzlies’ lead to 45-41.

“We got them to turn the ball over some and we got the game to our pace,” Thomas said. “Our guys were able to get some buckets in transition and then we turned the ball over two or three times in a row and you shoot yourself in the foot and they blew it back up to a double-digit lead. We’re not very deep as it is and you can’t play catch-up like that over and over again.”

Keaton Jackson capped off a 13-2 West Plains run with a dunk and 3-point play and State Fair never got the deficit back below 10.

The Roadrunners, who are now in a three-way tie for first place with MSU-West Plains and Moberly Area, will host Moberly at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.